Clinton And The Lobbyists

Wednesday morning, we looked at how right-of-center Democratic Members of Congress-- most of them dripping in the kind of corruption you expect from the GOP but not from Democrats-- are all huge Hillary supporters. But when a friend of mine, slightly drunk at a Tuesday night impromptu Bernie celebration in Brooklyn not far from Clinton's national headquarters, asked why I didn't think it would be smooth sailing for Bernie right to the nomination, I didn't point to the corrupt conservative congressmembers-- all of whom are anti-democracy super-delegates-- but to the lobbyist community instead. That-- even more than the banksters-- is where the core support for the Clinton Machine comes from. The lobbyists run her campaign on every level-- and one of them, Campaign Chair Podesta's brother, Tony, signaled a couple of days ago that once Clinton replaces Obama in the White House, she'll tear up his restrictions against lobbyists and K Street will be welcome at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue once again.

A few years ago, Gallup polled the public on lobbyists. The public doesn't feel as warm and fuzzy towards them as Bill and Hill do. In fact, lobbyists are even more despised than Members of Congress! Lobbyist ethical standards were rated as "low" or "very low" by 58% of respondents, even worse than used car salesmen (53%) and congressmembers (45%). Tuesday, Democratic voters in New Hampshire indicated that their contempt for lobbyists has rubbed off on Hillary:

Gallup's annual update on the honesty and ethical standards of people in various professions finds a new entry ranking at the bottom of the list. For the first time, Gallup asked the public to rate the honesty and ethical standards of lobbyists, and only 5% describe their ethics as "very high" or "high." Lobbyists, car salesmen (5%), and advertising practitioners (6%) are the lowest-rated professions. Nurses, typically the top-rated profession each year, again get the highest ratings. Ratings of congressmen are the worst Gallup has ever recorded.

...Eighty-three percent of Americans rate nurses' honesty and ethical standards as very high or high, easily the most positively rated profession. Nurses were first included in 1999 and have averaged an 81% very high/high rating since then. That has been good for first place each year except 2001, when firefighters were included after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and received a 90% rating.

After nurses, grade-school teachers (74%) and pharmacists (71%) are rated next most highly this year. Just under two-thirds of Americans give high ratings to military officers and medical doctors. Clergy and policemen are the only other two professions that receive positive ratings above 50%.

As is typically the case, politicians do not fare that well, but local officeholders (20%) are rated better than state officeholders (12%) and congressmen (9%). In fact, congressmen rank above only lobbyists, car salesmen, and advertising practitioners this year. Lawyers (15%) and business executives (14%) also receive relatively poor ratings.

...The public's ratings of congressmen (14% to 9%), advertising practitioners (11% to 6%), and business executives (18% to 14%) also show significant drops, but not a return to previous levels. In fact, all three have established new lows. The score for congressmen is less than half of what it was in 2004, down from 20% in that year's poll.

This new Bernie ad started running today in Minnesota:



Hillary has taken more from lobbyists than anyone else who has ever served in Congress. This money rep[resents the most blatant and purest form of bribery that doesn't send someone to prison. Only 18 Members of Congress have taken over a million dollars from the lobbyists. Hillary is about to surpass $3 million.

• Hillary Clinton- $2,915,238
• John McCain- $1,881,850
• Harry Reid- $1,765,101
• John Kerry- $1,541,462
• John Boehner- $1,449,121
• Barack Obama- $1,373,848
• Mitch McConnell- $1,368,310
• Patty Murray- $1,337,372
• Ed Markey- $1,300,937
• Mary Landrieu- $1,293,716
• Chuck Schumer- $1,250,727
• Arlen Specter- $1,228,976
• John Murtha- $1,205,174
• Chris Dodd- $1,182,680
• Max Baucus- $1,090,459
• Maria Cantwell- $1,081,946
• Robert Menendez- $1,026,162
• Steny Hoyer- $1,005,382

Yesterday. Lee Fang, writing for The Intercept, documented how freaked out the scummy lobbyists and consultants of Clinton World are over Bernie's much-bigger-than-expected win in New Hampshire Tuesday. He pointed with contempt to TPP lobbyist Tony Fratto, co-founder of Hamilton Place Strategies, which, in a sane environment would be considered a dangerous criminal enterprise. Fratto and other lobbyists, from Alex Castellanos-- who is working full time on smearing Bernie-- and AT&T/Zurich Financial Services lobbyist John Feehery (who referred to Bernie inspiring victory speech Tuesday night as Castro-like to Rory Cooper, a right-wing political strategist as well as managing director of Purple Strategies (which gives money to Republicans and to corrupt right-wing Democrats like Gwen Graham, Ann Kuster, Gary Peters, Mark Pryor and John Barrow.) His Twitter followers didn't appreciate his tweet after the primary results came in:

UPDATE: Wasserman Schultz Makes A Move

Hard to imagine but today, the sleaze ball DNC chair and Hillary operative, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, reversed President Obama's ban on the DNC accepting donations from federal lobbyists. Hillary, whose campaign is tantamount to a K Street/Wall Street cabal, refuses to call Wasserman Schultz off, of course. Tim Canova, the progressive who is running for the South Florida seat Wasserman Schultz operates out of, pointed out that "At the time, this ban was supposed to be about proving that the Democratic Party was going to stand behind their platform and lead by example. But, thanks to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC is allowing federal lobbyists to have enormous influence in the inner workings of the only political party that “promises” to reform our campaign finance laws... It is frustrating to watch Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Democratic National Committee continue to become corrupted by special interests and the billionaire class. After the success of Senator Bernie Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire, you would think the establishment in the Democratic Party would have learned by now. But apparently they are just too corrupt to see the forest from the trees. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's decision to reverse President Obama's prohibition on pay to play politics and let the DNC accept donations from corporate lobbyists is a major step in the wrong direction."

Please consider contributing to Canova's campaign here and help drive corruption out of Democratic politics. There are few Members of Congress as pernicious and toxic as Wasserman Schultz.


And a little bonus because we love you and this video just will not wait until our next post on Herr Trumpf tomorrow. So... enjoy-- and if you want to contribute to a campaign today, consider these men and women who have endorsed Bernie and are running for Congress on his issues. No matter who wins the White House, we will need more progressives in Congress, right?